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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23710504">Antistrophe</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaziestShade/pseuds/HaziestShade'>HaziestShade</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Azure Moon - Freeform, Azure Moon!Dorothea, I'm really sad tonight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:48:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,565</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23710504</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaziestShade/pseuds/HaziestShade</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is over and the monster is defeated, but Dorothea can't help but look back.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Antistrophe</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dorothea had to see. That was her excuse for creeping back to the throne room while the rest of the Blue Lions celebrated their hard-fought victory. She knew she should be happy. The war had been hell to her, At last the killing and death was at an end, she should have been jubilant. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The war was finished and was free. But as she slipped through the massive ebony doors to the throne room a choked feeling rose in her throat and she barely kept herself from vomiting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She should leave. Find Ingrid or Manuela. Find some solace in the end of the war. Instead, she moved forward. She had been fighting for her life when Dimitri had struck the final blow. When the monster...when Edelgard retreated to her throne room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had seen Edelgard’s form twist and warp, her limbs distend and eyes filled with hate. She had seen all of it, but she hadn’t seen how it ended.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was wrong to her. The climax was the most important part of a tragedy, and she hadn’t seen it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her steps echoed on the marble floor as she walked, nearly deafening in the silence. The throne room was almost as massive as an opera hall, luxurious and ornate. It was a lovely place to die she supposed. Better than the mud and stampede of Grounder, better than the searing heat and smoke of Aiell. It would make a marvelous set someday.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I doubt that’s much solace, is it Eddy? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She almost laughed, wiping furiously at her eyes. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m crying for the enemy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>No.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Crying for Edelgard.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She tried to stop the tears that fell, Edelgard hadn’t earned them. This had been her war. She’d cried for Ferdinand, for Lindhart, and Bernie, for Caspar and Petra and the random twist of fate that led her to watch them die instead of dying with them. They’d died fighting for what they believed in, for what </span>
  <em>
    <span>Edelgard </span>
  </em>
  <span>believed in, but that didn’t make it any easier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She clutched at a pillar trying breathlessly to regain her composure. She had watched Bernie engulfed in flames, she had flung a bolt of sparks at Ferdinand. She gasped, there suddenly seemed to be too little air, the Throne Room blurring as she choked back sobs.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eddy why? Why did you...did we do this? What was it all for.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Phantom battles, echoes of screams and blood and the clash of metal flashed behind her eyes. She clutched at her head. The war had been all her fault. All the death, the despair, the endless days and nights of fear was at her feet. She hated Edelgard. Hated the Flame Empress that had led them to Grounder and left countless dead in her wake. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hated Edelgard. She hated Edelgard. She reminded herself, her hands clenched and unclenching at her sides. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This was her war, her’s! Everything that’s happened, all the lives that’ve been lost all at her command. Damn you Eddy. Why did it have to be like this? Why did you have to do this?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She let her hand fall from the pillar. She clasped her eyes shut. For a moment she back in the Black Eagle classroom. Ferdinand making his silly blustering speeches, Bernie hunched in her seat like a frightened rabbit, Caspar pestering a sleeping Lindhart, and Petra...Petra stumbling through Fodland’s speech. She even thought of Hubert, his back to the wall casting dark glares at anyone looking his way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wanted to picture them all like that. Young and naive and full of life. It wasn’t the operatic way to remember them, as children instead of heroes or monsters. But that was how they’d been. She opened her eyes, staring at the throne room through blurry eyes. Despite herself, her thoughts turned to Edelgard. So serious, so intense. She’d been off-putting, more so than most nobles. Cold and harsh, demanding, and yet...she’d told Dorothea about how she’d dispose of the useless nobles once she was empress. The nobles who had thrown Dorothea’s mother on the street, that had left her to starve. At the time she’d thought it was impossible even if Edelgard had believed it. She knew better now.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eddy… </span>
  </em>
  <span>She’d been cold and blunt but she was more than that. A laugh mingled with a sob. She’d teased the Flame Empress about her love life and Eddy had lamented that she’d have no chance for romance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d read Edelgard’s manifesto. The church had burned every copy they’d gotten their hands on, made the mere presence of it treason but it had spread everywhere despite them. It hurt to remember how it had stirred her heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The lies of the church, the church that watched as countless unfortunates starved on the streets saving only a lucky few, the sins of Bishop Rhea who had given Dorothea her first kill. A bandit young enough to be her classmate with sandy hair and a rusty sword. Last, there’d been the countless unforgivable acts of the nobility, the nobility that had loomed above her from birth, hating her as a penniless orphan and adoring her as a famed songstress. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another giggle broke her tears. She might have been one of the only ones to hate the nobles as much as Edelgard. She left the pillar, her sobs fading into silent tears. </span>
</p><p><em><span>I need to hurry</span></em> <em><span>Dimitri or Professor will send someone soon. They can’t just leave her here. </span></em><span>She sped her steps a little. She wondered who they would send. Dedue perhaps, Gilbert or Catherine. Whoever they sent would hate Edelgard, would know her only as the monster or the Flame Empress. She began ascending the steps. It seemed wrong to her, in some wordless indescribable way. It was wrong that Edelgard had no one left to truly mourn her.</span></p><p>
  <span>Her legs felt heavy as stones as she climbed. It felt like years since she’d slept and every step felt like a mountain in it’s own right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wanted to shut her eyes and cursed herself for being so weak. She’d seen the monster already, there was no reason to be scared anymore. Edelgard couldn’t hurt anyone anymore, Edelgard couldn’t hurt anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As she neared the final step she paused. She inhaled a shaky breath. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Monster. Empress. Edelgard. Eddy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She needed to see what lay at the top.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took her final step. Ahead of her was a figure in crimson huddled against herself. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Eddy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She was human, human as anyone and still. Her coat was crimson, too close to blood to tell how much there was. On the ground before her lay a bloody dagger. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sickness rose in her throat and she kicked the thing out of her path. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eddy.” She murmured. She felt paralyzed. To see the empress, Edelgard, a woman larger than life huddled lifeless on the ground. It was wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Instinctively she brushed her shoulder. Her coat was soft, velvet, and gently she lifted her. More tears sprung to her eyes and she let them fall. In operas death was a beautiful thing, beds of rose petals and noble sacrifice. The war had made her think that was entirely fiction, yet Edelgard was beautiful still. She let her lay back, like had only fallen asleep and would rise again like the Goddess above. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She saw the wound now, a horrible tear in her stomach and half a dozen others marked only by the tears in the crimson fabric. She bit her lip. “Eddy.” She said hollowly. She knelt beside her, brushing a snowy locke out her face.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was hard to see Edelgard the empress, harder still to see the monster. A sob clawed it’s way from her lips. She saw Edelgard her classmate, Edelgard her friend. Eddy. Finally, she looked at her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her violet eyes were closed and her lips...a smile graced her lips. A calm, sad thing, she had never seen Eddy smile like that. She wiped the tears from her cheeks. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I hope you found peace Eddy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She thought. She prayed she did, even as her dream, her life’s ambition fell around her. She stayed knelt by her side. It didn’t seem right to send a prayer to the Goddess, not for Edelgard who had taken such pride in her defiance. Instead, she stayed by her side, as a friend would have.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stood an unknown time later, almost reluctant. “I have to go.” She said to no offer, she needed to go before others arrived yet she remained motionless before Edelgard. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She let out an exhausted breath. Somehow the thought of leaving her hurt. Like leaving a friend. And the idea of the church’s men stomping into the room and dragging her away to be displayed or disposed of like trash made her feel ill. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t stop them of course but she could...she unbuttoned her own cloak. A rose color satin thing, an old gift from a patron. Gently she laid it over Edelgard, casting one last look at her serene expression.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eddy…” She began. “Eddy. I’ll remember you like this, ok? I’m sorry, I’m sorry we ended here.” Her voice came out a whisper and long-buried regret tore at her heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At last, she turned away and began her descent. She would remember Edelgard smiling, and when the opera was made she would ensure Edelgard was remembered as more than a monster.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's been a long time since I've been inspired to write anything but FE3H has actually given me the motivation to try again.<br/>Anyways I hope you enjoyed this!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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